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Beingfrank
Thought Leadership & Strategy
Keynotes
With technology innovations lifting so many boundaries and eliminating so many borders, the questions that business professionals wrestle with move from “how to achieve our goal” to “what do we do with all that power”? Ultimately, these are questions of philosophy. Based on the book "Socrates Reloaded" and in his usual funny and provocative style, Buytendijk meanders through 2,500 years of philosophy and touches on the three essential questions for the years to come. What is true? What is real? And what is good? Beware attending this presentation, because there is no way back. Once you immerse yourself in the world of philosophy, you’ll start doubting everything in life (except doubt itself).
In the Western world, we are obsessed with analysis. It seems to be the hammer that treats every problem as a nail. “If we have all the data, the best tools and the smartest people, we can crack every problem”, is what we like to believe. But analysis doesn’t always work. Surprisingly, one of the areas that needs much more than analysis is strategy. Strategy is full of dilemmas. Between the long-term and the short-term, between different stakeholders, between different choices on how to use our limited resources. Analysis only brings you so far. Even worse, as Buytendijk argues in his book "Dealing with Dilemmas", analysis tends to confirm and deepen dilemmas in strategy. In this presentation, Buytendijk shares his many years of research into other toolkits of solving strategic problems. Called “quirky”, “inspirational”, “intellectually provoking, but with a warm tone of voice”, this presentation opens new doors in strategy.
Why do so many performance improvement initiatives fail? Why is the budgeting process such a political exercise? Why is achieving “one version of the truth” such an elusive goal? Having challenged best practices in his book "Performance Leadership", Frank Buytendijk comes with straight talk about what truly counts in business performance; understanding people’s behaviors. If your initiatives to boost business performance have failed, if you are looking for “what’s next,” or if you want to jumpstart your new initiative, Frank’s provocative style and out-of- the-box thinking will certainly grab you. Attend this presentation and learn what jogging, sandbagging, people’s behaviors, and trying to stay sane have in common.
Workshops
Socrates Reloaded: The Case for Ethics in Business & Technology
We strive for ever-more operational excellence in business operations, and embrace analytics as the way to “predict the future”, or at least getting grip on the changes in our environment. But is that always GOOD? Are there things we shouldn’t do or shouldn’t know? Using many real-life examples, Buytendijk take you on a tour through modern-day ethics in business and technology. Can the police use navigation data to plan speed traps? Can business analysts analyze anything they want? Are there limits to higher productivity? Does technology have a moral footprint? Esoteric? Hardly! In the years to come, taking the power of technology too far will cause large enterprises significant public embarrassment, and worse. Executives and politicians will have to step down for not having thought through these issues. A must-attend workshop to survive the coming decade.
Values, Culture and Behavior: The True Drivers of Business Performance
It is time to let go of the "soft side" of performance management, with disconnected numbers in spreadsheets and tools. Instead, we should focus more on the "hard side" -people's behaviors. Measurement drives behavior, but it seems we are surprised every time when people play budget games, fudge KPIs and display other dysfunctional behaviors. No wonder the "one version of the truth" never succeeded! Who wants it anyway? In this workshop we will discuss the behavioral side of business intelligence and performance management. How can we predict good and bad behaviors? What can we do to correct underisable behaviors?
Other presentations
There are many different ways to put together an IT strategy. Some see IT becoming a utility, like electricity or water, it is simply there when you need it. Others approach IT as an enabler, to fuel new business ideas. There are also people who see IT as a driver, making entirely new things possible. There are also multiple ways how to govern IT. Sometimes business is in the lead, sometimes IT takes the driver’s seat, and sometimes it is a true collaborative effort. Buytendijk explains how this leads to 9 core IT strategies. Is one strategy better than the other? What are the do’s and don’ts? What strategy fits you best? High-paced, contrarian, and full of observation on how reality is often stranger than fiction.
Presentation - Big Data Needs Big Process
Big Data is one of the biggest trends in IT and business. It helps organizations significantly improve their capabilities of getting very detailed insights in a much shorter period of time. In short: 1-on-1 customer interaction in real-time. But the term “big data” is problematic. It’s not about being big, and it is not about data. Big data is as useful as how well you can turn those insights into action. Action is the domain of business operations and business process. Never hesitating to launch the next big thing, Buytendijk explores the world of Big Process, and sheds some light on how to upgrade your business operations from essentially the 1990s to what is needed for today.
Presentation - Performance Networks: Managing The Heterogeneous World
No organization stands alone. Most organizations heavily rely on outsourced activities. They run customer self-service processes, manage complex mass customization value-chains, and even innovation is a co-creative process. Business has become a network. The nature of management, unfortunately, is still very hierarchical. In his usual provocative and humorous style, Frank shares his research on the sense and the nonsense of network organizations, and how to manage this new reality. See how baseball, Frank's whisky cabinet and dating relate to service level agreements, stakeholder management, and everything 2.0.